User in my company is using IBM R30 laptop. He comes in today to work and opens up his computer. He tries to trun it on and it gives him a message no operating system found press any key to reboot.

In brief I take the computer and can't do a Windows 2000 repair, as it cant find Win2k on the computer. I pretty much can't do anything and get into a dos prompt to take a look at the contents of c. There are none. So, I run the IBM Recovery and reinstall everything. Pretty much cut and dry.

My question is: After interrogating him, I understand what happened to be this: He took his computer home to work on a report. He never powered down. He left it on all night and in the morning put it in it's carry case, still powered up. He came to work and passed through security which includes a metal detector. He then got to his desk and opened up his laptop to find no OS.

I remember reading something about how metal detectors and magnets can only wipe hard drives, if the computer is powered on. I am trying to figure out how his hard drive got wiped. Is the metal detector a real possibility? Is it more likely to be an IBM disk failure and I should send the laptop to IBM (under warranty)?

Thanks